Traditionally, product catalogs containing graphical and written information about products and services offered for sale have been printed and then distributed to potential clients. The customers would browse the catalog and select items to be purchased. They would then complete a paper order form or telephone to the supplier to order the items. The whole process, from printing of the catalog to receipt of the order, would usually take a long time and is relatively expensive to manage.
A further drawback of printed catalogs is that current product availability information is not available at the time that the consumer browses the printed catalog. Furthermore, prices must be fixed for the duration of the catalog's circulation which may be a disadvantage for the vendor when stock product prices go up during a specific period. None of the information included in the printed catalog delivered to clients may be changed after printing and delivery.
An improvement over this system is to offer on-line product information via the Internet. A client can access a vendor's or supplier's web site, browse a product catalog, download product information such as still and motion images, and possibly order selected items via the Internet. This system may also provide pricing and stock availability information that the supplier may change by programming the web page. However, this method has the drawback that browsing is slow due to the large volume of data required for graphical images being downloaded through the Internet. Product videos or animated pictures, also comprising sound and music, require even larger amounts of data and cannot be viewed in real time with conventional technology. Users' loss of interest, due to the long image download period, results in loss of sales.